We invite you to take a musical journey with us as we speak with Palestinian oudist, Clarissa Bitar about her debut album, “Hassan Sabi” released by Levantine Music Group last month. We will speak with her about her music, listen to some music together, and discuss her creative process. The music you hear throughout our show today will be from the album, Hassan Sabi. This live broadcast will be accompanied by an extended podcast version of this show’s interview. If you miss our live show on kpfk.org, you can listen to this extended podcast and our previous podcasts on Spotify, Anchor, Google Podcasts, Breaker, and Radio Public.
Clarissa Bitar is a Palestinian oud musician and composer born, raised, and based in Los Angeles, California. She graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a degree in Music and an emphasis in Ethnomusicology. As a student, Clarissa won multiple awards for excellence in performance in Ethnomusicology and had the privilege of playing around California with the UC Santa Barbara Middle East Ensemble. To further her studies, Clarissa sought out and learned from prominent Arab oudists including Simon Shaheen, Charbel Rouhana, and Bassam Saba. She has incorporated oud with a multitude of genres ranging from R&B to Pop to Hip Hop and Rap. Her debut album titled “Hassan Sabi” is out now on all streaming platforms, including Apple Music, Spotifiy, among other streaming platforms. Her music has been featured on radio, and, in fact, she has generously furnished music to a previous show on SWANA Region Radio. She released a joint poetry-oud EP with Palestinian poet, author, and journalist Mohammed el-Kurd in January of 2019 titled Bellydancing on Wounds as well as a her solo EP Bayati. Clarissa has a passion for teaching and sharing knowledge on Arab music, as well as performing and hopes to continue to carve our spaces for oud share this tradition with others. You can find out more about Clarissa and her work by visiting her website, clarissabitar.comand following her on Instagram.
